by
Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968)
A song of the Southern River
Language: English  after the Chinese (中文)
Available translation(s): GER
Since I married the merchant of Ch'üt'ang
He has failed each day to keep his word.
Had I thought how regular the tide is,
I might rather have chosen a riverboy.
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Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li Yi (748 - 829), "江南曲"
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Lied des südlichen Flusses", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-25
Line count: 4
Word count: 31
Lied des südlichen Flusses
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English
Dem Kaufmann aus Ch'üt'ang gab ich das Jawort -
er aber konnte seitdem sein Wort nicht halten, Tag um Tag.
Hätte ich bedacht, wie beständig die Gezeiten sind -
lieber hätte ich einen Jungen vom Fluss genommen.
Authorship:
Based on:
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li Yi (748 - 829), "江南曲"
This text was added to the website: 2008-08-06
Line count: 4
Word count: 37